Here’s a change—Action instead of talk

Once again we are hearing the popular political refrain about small business being crucial to leading us out of the current economic malaise.  Yesterday President Obama announced his proposal that he believes will boost rural, small business economic development.

According to a Bloomberg report  the President’s plan will include:

(E)xpanded loan programs run by the Small Business Administration through a $1 billion investment fund aimed at luring private capital, job search and training services, and increased access to health care and technology.

(T)he Navy and the departments of Agriculture and Energy will invest as much as $510 million in a program aimed at producing biofuels for aircraft and ships. The plan, part of the administration’s energy strategy, will benefit rural areas, according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

What makes me have more hope that this talk about helping small businesses is not just more political pandering is that the Administration doesn’t need Congress to put his proposals into action.  The President can just shift some existing funds around in the agencies he controls. 

This mean that these programs, while still not the big job creation programs we need, can actually come to fruition to help some small businesses.  Plus, since the effort won’t add a dime to government spending, our federal-budget watchers should be appeased.